First of all, english is not my native language so please excuse any mistake I could make

Yesterday, I connect my archos to my home computer who was recognized. After a while, I have unpluged it and replace it with a usd device to copy some file and then plug again the archos who was then not recognized anymore. The computer detect a device but consider it as a non formated disk (not format perform).

I taught It was just another Windows problem (already had the case once) and that a restart would fix this so I din'nt worries about it. This morning, when I tried to listen to the music, I realized my archos was empty (no file but radio still working).

I tried to plug the archos on several computer at work (3 differents, vista and XP) but I have the same problem, the device is not recognize and keeps telling me disk not formated

Same problem here. I bought an Archos 20c last week. After 'removing hardware securely', this morning, I could start it up, but all files and folders i had created myself have disappeared. I do get the inital screen and can choose the menus. The music menu has entries Title, Artist,..., etc, but choosing those, shows a no file warning, the 'files' entry shows an empty list. The 'update' entry is stuck there. The video, ..., files menu entries all just show emptly lists.

Windows cannot read anything any more.chkdsk I: finds a RAW device, which it does not support.Clicking in windows explorer makes it ask me if I want it to format the device. My guess is that that will make me lose the whole system. I am not interested in getting back my files which where in there, but formatting will erase everything including the system I suppose

Archos 20c has some little bugs I can live with, but this is extremely disappointing. Any suggestions to other 35 euro mp3 players, which you can access as an ordinary USB-device ?

Last edited by despauser on Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Do not try to update the firmware in an attempt to get things right. I just did, and got a microsoft windows system update screen. it cannot find anything, and after two attempts, my 1 week old Archos 20c was DEAD !!

When I plug in the USB cable, nothing appears in windows any more. I cannot switch the Archos on any more either.

update again. it isn't dead. i pressed the 'on'button really long, and it starts up. Still completely empty. windows says it is a working device, but cannot access it, and it cannot format it either.

new update.

Archos says you should use diskmgmt.msc in windows, and reformat MBR scheme/FAT32. The Microsoft help page on diskmgmt ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308424/EN-US ) is incredibly dumb, ,it just describes all the options you would find yourself when clicking in the disk management window. It may solve your problem, but be careful. After doing it, i could open the device, after making four directories however, Windows got stuck when I tried the fifth, all the directories that I had made, disappeared, and now Windows does not recognize the USB device at all any more.

Hi guys ! I`ve registered to this forum just to help you for recovering the device.It happend to me after 2 days of use but I'm not a beginner in usb flash drives. That thing is called a flash memory corruption and because of that the player will be unusable.With this fix, all your data will be lost but there`s no other way.

1. Reset the device with a paper clip (on the back)2. Connect the device to your computer3. Right click on "Removable Disk" - the disk of the player4. Select format5. In the format window select FAT32 file sistem, name the partiton ARCHOS and click format.6. On the new partition named ARCHOS create folders : Video, Music, Data, Pictures7. Put some MP3s in Music folder8. Disconnect the device from Safty USB device remover and enjoy your music !